Strike Day: Protest in Bengal against TMC hooliganism

Kolkata: On September 2, Bengal had witnessed barbaric attack on Left front supporters in different parts of West Bengal. CPI (M) Zonal Committee Secretary Ganesh Sarkar and former MP Manirul Hasan were thrashed by TMC goons in Behrampore. The 17 Left parties on Thursday staged protest in different areas of Bengal, condemning the brutal attack on their supporters by the TMC Goons and Police.

The Central rally started from Subodh Mullick Square in Central Kolkata to Entally Market. Left front Chairman Biman Bose, CPI (M) State Secretary and Leader of the Opposition Dr Suryakanta Mishra, CPI (M) Politburo member Mohammed Salim along with some other party members spearheaded it. Thousands of commoners also joined the rally and Left front Chairman Biman Bose projected a strong message to the government saying, “The government cannot curb the democratic right of the people by suppression.”

Over 10 lakh bankers in government and private banks will go on a two-day strike by the end of May if the government does not ask the Indian Banks Association (IBA) to make an improved offer, said a leader of the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA).

“It is a matter of shame that while thousands of crores of rupees are written off from profits towards bad loans of big corporates, the genuine demands of bank employees are being denied in this fashion,” C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA, said on Sunday.

“If the Finance Ministry does not intervene to make the IBA to make their improved offer, it has been decide to call for a 48-hour continuous strike by end of this month,” he said.

Indian Overseas Bank, wikimedia commons

Wage revision talks between the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU) — an umbrella body of bank unions — and IBA representing various banks held in Mumbai on Saturday ended in a failure.

Venkatachalam said the IBA offered an increase of 2 per cent over the total wage bill of the banks as on March 31, 2017.